I have now edited the PHP code on the Emerald City web site, so issue #120 and above are free on Amazon links. Unfortunately up until issue #119 all of the links were hard-coded into the HTML. They will take a little longer to root out. I’ll have to fire up Dreamweaver for the first time in years. And that may have to wait because I have many other things clamoring for my attention. Still, progress.
Emerald City
A Brazilian on Brasyl
One of the things that always worries authors (and reviewers) is setting a book in a far away place and then discovering you got it all wrong. It is worrying for the author, because he may end up offending a lot of people, and it is worrying for the reviewer because she can’t tell if the author has done a superb job or is going to end up with egg on his face. Emerald City closed before I got to read Brasyl, but had I written a review I would have made worried noises about how the book would be received in a country that I know has a love of science fiction. Well, I need worry no longer. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now have a friend in Brazil, and he loved the book. Money shot:
Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the nature of Brazilian people. Even if he hasn’t lived in Brazil, doing his research in a couple of visits to São Paulo, Bahia and the Amazon, and reading the few books about Brazil available in English, McDonald was able to capture, with amazing precision, the Brazilian spirit. And he did this without clichés, without hullabaloos, but with critical observations regarding the importance Brazilian people gives to beauty, soccer and TV. Besides, geographically everything is right and linguistically, it is better than most foreigners trying the language of Camões.
I note also this this is the only review of Brasyl I have read that acknowledges the fact that the hero of one of the three strands, Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas, is both bisexual and a transvestite. Gary Wolfe noted one of them. Everyone else has either been blind to this or has chosen to ignore it.
Anyway, congratulations to Ian, Hugo voters please take note, and a small raspberry to the Clarke Jury.
More Awards?
It was pointed out to be while I was at ICFA that Emerald City is listed as a candidate for “Best Magazine or Fanzine” in this year’s Locus Awards. That’s quite an achievement given that it didn’t manage a single issue in 2007. I spoke to Mark Kelly at the banquet and I hereby absolve him of all blame for this. I am, however, rather amused. Feel free to vote for it if you want. It is a category I know I’ll never win, but I’d like to finish above Ansible.
More importantly, however, you have only a few weeks left to cast your Locus Award ballots. There is no fee to vote, and you don’t have to be a member of any convention. Anyone can vote. Please do so. The ballot is here.
Our Friends in Seattle
I discover from this LJ post that the Seattle in 2011 Worldcon bid is adopting a theme of “Return to the Emerald City”. It isn’t quite clear whether this is just for parties in Denver, or for the con as a whole, but hey, how sweet. These nice people printed up t-shirts advertising my fanzine when I was bidding against them for 2002. Now they seem to want me back. 🙂
Yes, I have bought a pre-support. I think it was a friend. They just haven’t updated their web site in a while.
Hmm, you know, maybe I should do a special issue if they win. Then again, that might cause people to vote against them.